RocknRolla Special Edition Blu-ray Review

Substance-less style magnified in HD.

After the critical and commercial drubbing he received for Revolver, his tail-chasing deconstruction of the genre he popularized in the late 1990s, Guy Ritchie's career as a purveyor of hipster crime movies by all rights should have been over. Mind you, that might suggest that his career as a whole is over, since he's only done one non-crime film in his career and it was the disastrous remake of Swept Away. But one might think that he would explore some other creative options after discovering that audiences didn't find his supposed cleverest trick very clever, if they found it at all.

Unfortunately (for whom remains to be seen), Ritchie's affection for colorful criminals and convoluted plotlines remains unabated, at least evidenced by Revolver's follow-up. RocknRolla, his latest, admittedly goes down far more smoothly than its predecessor but proves to be just as much an exercise in substance-less style, eliciting the dangerous question "who cares?" from an audience (much less a fan base) that at this point only barely does.

Gerard Butler, capitalizing poorly on the stardom he won as the star of 300, plays One Two, a low-level crook who conspires with his partner Mumbles (Idris Elba) to fleece a wealthy developer named Uri Obomavich (Karel Roden) out of millions. The robbery goes off without a hitch thanks to inside information from Uri's comely accountant Stella (Thandie Newton), but the pair runs afoul of a London mob boss named Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) who runs the city. In the meantime, everyone is looking for Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell), a drug-addled rock star who comes into possession of a treasured painting that may make or break a deal that could fill Cole's coffers for life.

RocknRolla may have been muddied by a loose plot and a clever, yet forgettable premise, but it makes for one beautiful Blu-ray. The bold dynamic of deep, inky blacks atop a near incandescent sky gives us a sense of depth and dimension that's indescribably striking. As in most newer "crime/action" films that make it to Blu-ray, the coloration is less natural than what other genres depict, but this was a clear style choice that has served similar, better, films such as the Ocean's trio or even the constantly oscillating Kill Bill formats well. The disc leaves nothing to be desired, by way of the video quality at least, and the almost too perfect enhancements make it difficult to decipher what's actually beautiful and what has been artificially enhanced. No matter, we're used to Gerard Butler looking overly enhanced.

Score: 9 out of 10

Language and Audio

For a film with the words "rock" and "roll" [almost] in the title, there isn't much of a booming soundtrack here, so even though music plays a large part in the flashbacks, there are few musical cues to announce what is coming or the intensity of a scene. But this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, the subtle soundtrack was yet another way to enhance the quality of this disc. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 pops when it needs to, but doesn't rely too heavily on the shock factor of a gunfight or pistol whipping to move the story. A strong overall transfer with few hiccups to stunt the story.

"Guy's Town: The Director Reflects on His Fascination with Ever-Evolving London (In HD)

Ritchie's slick British tongue is enough to enchant the commentary, but the entire thing is an ode to his genius complete with Mark Strong licking his wounds and stroking Ritchie's ego. They are a funny couple, but it takes several minutes for them to find a decent groove, but this is not to say that Strong ever makes it any further than being Ritchie's lapdog. He speaks only when prompted and is alway corrected; his simple observations are far too obvious for Ritchie's taste. A bit of snobbery goes a long way (about 115 minutes) in this one, mate, but Ritchie does have some interesting insights to share if you're willing to dote on him as Strong was.

"Blokes, Birds and Backhanders" looks just as nice as the film itself. It's 15 minutes of hard-hitting back shots and backstage insights all filtered for HD. They use the same fonts and folio for the skins and the score has that same underhanded role as in the feature. It's fun, but incredibly revealing. They give away all the secrets of the action (and the ending) so stay far away from this until you've seen the film because what few secrets this film has are quickly revealed by the cast.

It was no surprise after hearing Ritchie talk about himself in the commentary that a special feature dedicated solely to his vision for the film and understanding of the social climate in London was to be the most incredibly boorish thing on the menu. Thankfully it's only eight minutes, but it is time spent purely on Ritchie's sour mug as he talks about how much London has changed over the course of his lifetime and how those changes inspired him to write this incredible film. Ritchie fans will coo over the face time, but his egocentrism will send novice admirers into a tailspin.

The deleted scene (singular) has Butler panting to the tune of a treadmill and getting verbally abused by Nonso Anozie. Together they fight about the amount of smoke in the room and how much cigarettes impede on the working man's ability to work. This was not refined so you can hear the DP talking over the actors and the screech of the camera moving in and out. Nothing particularly interesting and there is no introduction or briefing. It merely plays itself out at 3 ½ minutes and then the menu directs you back to the start of the film.

It's hard to appreciate bonus features such as these when they're so poorly organized. The commentary is easy to sort out, but the slow response of the rest of the features off the pop-up menu leaves you with a few seconds of lag that often turns into a skip. Pop-up menus are nice, but only as a compliment to a well-organized start. This text heavy bunch lags once you select which one you want and causes the film to miss its mark once you return to the feature. Poor form old boy.

Score: 6 out of 10

The Bottom Line

The video quality hits the mark, but poor formatting for the menu leaves enough lag time for Ritchie to reprise one of his anecdotes--and there are enough of those on the commentary to last a life time.